Pakistan’s protests and the world outcry against drone attacks may not have resulted in it, but luckily for the incoming Pakistani government, President Obama has indicated a new, pared down drone policy. The use of drones would be wound down to end by the close of 2014. Besides this, they would be limited to targeting those who represent a “continuing and imminent threat” to the US. The responsibility of these attacks has also been shifted from CIA to the Pentagon and a secret court would have to ‘sign off on strikes in the future’. In an address to military and ...

Briton’s response to the deplorable London attack was absolutely the right one. Prime Minister David Cameron while addressing the press outside the 10 Downing Street appeared clam yet resolute while categorically saying that the best response to defeating terrorism was to go about the normal way of life, rather than to give in to purely and understandably emotional reactions.His statement that the attack was not just aimed at Briton but it was what he called a ‘betrayal of Islam’ is far removed from the kind of harangue, often Islamophobic, usually heard by those wishing to ...

The PML-N parliamentary committee on Thursday nominated Mian Shahbaz Sharif for the Punjab chief ministership. It will be his third term, following his election first in 1997, a tenure which ended when military rule was imposed in 1999, and then in 2008. When he takes oath, he will equal the record created by his elder brother, Mian Nawaz Sharif, who was thrice Punjab Chief Minister if one counts a caretaker tenure in 1988. This tenure has been given after Mian Shahbaz served a full tenure that reflected sufficient credit on his party, to earn it not just re-election, but also victory as the ...

Recalling that Pak-China friendship was the outcome of centuries of people-to-people contacts, Prime Minister LI Keqiang, in his address before the Senate, said that it had been fostered and nurtured by generations after generations. And it was that spirit with which the two countries were imbued to work together, “shoulder to shoulder” in achieving their goal of progress and prosperity. He extended help and assistance to Pakistan in every conceivable field it asked for: strategic, energy, science and technology, agriculture, etc. A total of 12 agreements were signed during the ...

Would Asif Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) ever be able to forget the bitterness of the past and join hands to take the country out of  its present crisis? Both the leaders during their meeting in Islamabad have once again pledged to pick up the thread from the historic document, the Charter of Democracy (CoD), signed by Nawaz Sharif and late Benazir Bhutto on May 14, 2006 signaling an alliance between the two main political parties and outlining steps to end the military rule established by General Pervez ...

That the President on Wednesday did not sign an ordinance which imposed a mini-budget is no credit to the caretaker government. After all, it had advised its signing. Though such advice is binding, for a caretaker government which has refused to prosecute former President Musharraf for high treason on the ground that it is a caretaker, to try to push through a finance bill by ordinance is bizarre enough, and is only made worse by the fact that the elections it was installed to supervise are over, and the transfer of power to the elected government is underway. The ordinance reached the ...

The two-day visit of Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang to Pakistan that began yesterday is designed to give a fillip to the two countries’ political, economic and strategic relations, thus reaffirming and reinforcing their already existing exemplary ties. Speaking at a luncheon held in the visiting dignitary’s honour at Islamabad on Wednesday, President Asif Zardari rightly said that friendship with China was the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy and that China had a special place in the hearts and minds of the Pakistanis. He was personally committed to deepen the ...

Measles has been on a rampage. The reasons are obvious. Just like any other disease that catches the health authorities napping, this scourge too seems to thrive on our procrastination. Many precious lives have been wasted and more continue to fall victim to what is now almost an epidemic. Three more children died during the past few days; the total number is close to one hundred in Lahore alone, and has prompted the Lahore High Court to pull up officials of the Punjab Health Department. The court was irked by what it saw as feeble attempts to control the disease so far after it observed the ...

As the masses swelter in the heat, the power remained off even as the mercury kept rising, PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister-elect, continued preparations to tackle the energy crisis as soon as he came to office, expected to be around the end of the month. On Tuesday, he not only received a briefing from caretaker Water and Power Minister Musaddiq Malik on the crisis, but he also held both a party meeting and a meeting of experts, where it was decided that power plants at Chichokimalian and Nandipur would be given NOCs, the non-issuance of which had prevented them coming on ...

Riding high on the back of a comfortable majority in the National Assembly, the would-be Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif has clarified his stance of putting an end to the war on terror through talks with the Pakistani Taliban. He believes talks are the best option to restore peaceful conditions in the country. Observing that the offer of the TTP in this regard should be taken seriously, he has moved ahead and established contact with Maulana Sami-ul Haq, heading Dar-ul Aloom Haqqaniya, asking him to facilitate the process of initiating negotiations with them. The Maulana has reportedly ...